This invention relates to rotary type cup infeeders and more particularly relates to an improvement of the apparatus disclosed in U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,511, issued May 29, 1990, entitled Rotary Cup Infeed, with E. Sirvet as the inventor.
Incorporated herein by reference are the teachings of the aforesaid U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,511, as well as the teachings of those prior art patents mentioned in and/or cited against the application for U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,511.
According to U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,511 a continuously rotating feeder is utilized to transport cups from a feed chute to a receiving station where the cups are indexed for engagement by a reciprocating ram mounted tool that moves parallel to the axis of rotation for the rotating feeder.
In the art prior to the invention of U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,511, maintenance problems were present and/or production rates were limited because of reciprocated and/or rocking type feed mechanisms that were used to transfer cups from the feed chute to the receiving station through which the ram travels. While those problems are alleviated by utilizing a continuously rotating feed member as taught by U.S. Pat. No. 4,928,511, at ultra high production rates and/or because cup sidewalls are very thin, problems may arise in stabilizing cups at the receiving station. Contributing to these latter problems are slightly out of round conditions that may exist at the portion of the relatively flexible sidewall adjacent the open end of the cup and/or tool coolant that is being discharged against the back surface of the cup.